PSD students stranded during mountain Eco Week trips

Sep. 13, 2013

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With roads leading to Estes Park and Poudre Canyon closed Thursday due to heavy flooding, it’s uncertain when roughly 175 Poudre School District students will make the trek home from overnight environmental learning trips.

Each fall, PSD fifth-graders head up to Pingree Park in Poudre Canyon and Estes Park’s YMCA to study the likes of stream ecology and stargazing during Eco Week. Wednesday afternoon, YMCA received 70 students from Linton Elementary School, while those at Pingree welcomed 90 students from Liberty Common Elementary and 15 from PSD’s mountain schools.

By Thursday, roads leading to YMCA and Pingree were closed, as torrential rains washed through the canyons.

As of Thursday afternoon and according to original schedules, PSD planned to have both sets of students returned to their schools by Friday afternoon. District officials are working with emergency agencies to monitor road conditions and will decide sometime after 8 a.m. Friday if and when to bus students down the canyon, spokeswoman Danielle Clark said.

Based on conditions Thursday afternoon, Clark said the roads weren’t safe. But, she added, it was impossible to say Thursday what was in store for Friday’s weather.

Given the situation, Linton Principal Kristin Stolte said she responded Thursday to a constant stream of calls and emails from concerned parents. To them, she offered words of comfort, telling them the children were skating at the roller rink and learning about animal tracks and such in the YMCA’s indoor nature center.

“I feel very comfortable my kids are being taken care of,” she said of the group being watched over by Linton teachers and YMCA employees trained to handle a variety of emergency situations.

YMCA spokeswoman Laura Field said the bridge over Dorsey Lake near the entrance to the YMCA was closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles around noon Thursday, as waters from the lake broke over the bridge. She assured parents their children are safe, however, noting vehicles must ascend a hill and drive roughly 1,000 feet to get to the administrative buildings and lodges.

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Pingree Park Director Pat Rastall said the rain stopped around 2:15 p.m., yielding to an overcast sky. The kids were playing at the outdoor challenge course, he said over the phone, adding, “It’s Eco Week, as usual.”

Park staff didn’t have trouble driving the 16-mile dirt road leading to Colorado State University’s mountain park on Thursday, he said. Beside a higher river flow, everything was business as usual.

Jennifer Swanty sent her twin 10-year-old girls to YMCA and was surviving what she called a 24-hour roller coaster ride come Thursday afternoon. About 4:30 a.m. Thursday, she got a call from Linton’s school nurse, who said her daughter Cassia, a diabetic, was being taken to the hospital in Estes Park for high blood sugar levels.

With the roads closed, however, Swanty couldn’t reach her child. Nor could she get in contact with her other daughter, Kolby, who was still at YMCA, she said. Cellphone and land-line service was limited Thursday at the YMCA and throughout Estes Park.

Stolte said she sent out a recorded phone message to all Linton parents with students at Eco Week on Thursday morning and was planning to send a second later in the afternoon. Swanty said she was in contact with the school nurse and hospital doctors but didn’t receive any of Linton’s messages.